I can remember being twentysomething and attending church. The people closest in age to me were in the nursery. I ended up feeling so uncomfortable in the church that I chose to work with the children in the religious education program instead. And I think that was wise anyway–I like kids a lot, and adults, well, it depends on the adult.

Research on Christianity and Twentysomethings confirms this experience as typical. The Barna Group in Most Twentysomethings Put Spirituality on the Shelf following Spiritually Active Teen Years found that six out of ten people who were active as teenagers in church won’t be active as twentysomethings.

Six out of ten. That’s a lot of disinterest. The Barna Group puts the blame for lack of church attendance firmly on the shoulders of the twentysomethings.

Dan Kimball, author of An Emerging Church, has some interesting points about why twentysomethings don’t attend church in this interview:

Putting this rather bluntly, I have experienced that most of the younger people I know who have left their church are generally quite intelligent. Many churches also don’t intellectually challenge them, and that is another interesting thing I have heard. I think that many church attendees are somewhat passive and like to just sit and listen and basically be told what to think and what to do by their pastor. So, if you are a thinking person, it makes it difficult because most churches don’t leave room or have opportunity for dialogue.

I like putting the blame on the church and the lack of intellectual challenge rather than the twentysomethings.